Tires by Michelin

X-Ice tires

April 1, 2015 – 02:39 pm

By Colorado

Summary: THESE TIRES ARE AWESOME. Read on if you require more than my quick summation. I have been a Michelin fan for a while now. I switched to their M/S2 tire for driving to and from college, which was about an 850 mile trip over some terrible roads about 5 years ago. I called to have M/S2's put on my wife's jeep as her tires were getting worn and the sales rep talked me into looking at winter tires since it was October. Since she is from Florida and hasn't lived here for very long and has a 30 minute drive on I-70 to Vail, CO for work everyday I went for this option. Personally I have never really believed a winter tire can do that well without having studs, but let me tell you the X-Ice tires are truly winter tires. If you have ever lived in the mountains of Colorado then you know how important tires can be in helping navigate the winter roads. Since Breckenridge had just opened we decided to drive from Eagle and go snowboarding for the day. A blizzard had been hitting us pretty hard, but having lived here all my life I didn't really think anything of it at the time and I honestly wanted to see if these tires were going to help my wife make that drive to work everyday. Let me tell you after having to drive over snow and ice covered roads that were bad enough for Colorado State Patrol to shut them down I must admit they are worth every penny!!! We made it to Break just before they closed the roads at about 930 am and when the roads opened again at 230 we started the trip back. We had to stop to fill up just before getting back on I-70. I pulled into the gas station which outside of the covered pumps had about 1 1/2' of snow. I hadn't noticed until I was about to leave that cars were getting stuck around us. Literally within 3 minutes 4 or 5 cars wheels were just spinning. When we went to pull out I thought I was going to have to try and power through the snow, but as I pulled out the car drove like nothing was there. I could have come to a complete stop and started again with no issues. The trip back was an even better test then the drive there. Darkness and Colder temperatures were quickly approaching. I was sure that since it was still snowing it wouldn't be long before they closed the roads again and sure enough we made it to Vail just before they closed the pass. The handling is noticeably better even than the M/S2. The ride is comfortable and quite. Fuel economy has gone up slightly. Although the last one is hard to judge as my wife isn't the most efficient driver in the world.